This is the second mapping acquisition from Apple that's come to light in recent days.

Earlier, news broke that Apple bought Locationary, a sort of Wikipedia for maps. Locationary had crowdsourced data on venues.

Apple's Maps app has been a big embarrassment for the company. CEO Tim Cook apologized for the app, and recommended people use other apps. Former iOS leader Scott Forstall reportedly wasn't willing to sign the apology, which led in part to his ouster from the company.

After Forstall was forced out of the company, Eddy Cue took over leadership of Maps. Acquiring HopStop seems to be one of many steps to come as he tries to make Apple's maps competitive with Google's excellent maps app.